The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought the Attorney General of India?s opinion on whether it will be legally tenable to levy a one-time spectrum usage charges for the extended period in case of merger of Chennai and Tamil Nadu service areas and licences of Aircel?s two companies in these circles.
The DoT has approached the Attorney General of India since Aircel went ahead with registration of the merged entity after amalgamating two licences without waiting for the department?s approval, which had been sought by the company.
In a note written to the law officer, DoT has claimed that there was no delay on its part to comply with the operators? request to approve the proposed amalgamation, however the merger of licences also required approval from the Reserve Bank of India, which is yet to come in. Aircel had sought the transfer of license of Aircel Cellular in Chennai circle to Aircel in Tamil Nadu and issue a fresh licence for the merged service area Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) instead of seperate licences.
The operator had approached the court for sanctioning amalgamation of the two licences in 2010, which was approved and intimated to DoT in October 2010. DoT has added that Aircel furnished foreign direct investment compliance reports for the two circles in 2011 which indicated that Aircel Cellular ?illegally allowed? its licence to be used by Aircel following which a penalty of Rs 500 million was levied on the operator.
Subsequently, Aircel obtained a stay from the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on the penalty imposed on it and the tribunal also directed DoT to hear Aircel on the matter. Consequently, DoT levied fine worth Rs 100 million on Aircel which was deposited by the company in May 2013.
